This invention relates to knee joints for anthropomorphic dummies used in crash testing of motor vehicles. Such knee joints in the prior art generally comprise simple hinges which allow only rotation of the tibia with respect to the femur about the axis of the hinge. However, the actual knee of a human vehicle occupant in a seated position with the tibia at an approximate right angle to the femur may exhibit a translational or shearing motion between the tibia and femur when the knee is subjected to a frontal load of sufficient magnitude. Additionally, recent research has provided some indication of the allowable femur to tibia translational motion which the human knee can withstand before knee injury occurs. Therefore, it may be possible to test for shearing knee injuries in vehicle crash tests if the dummy knee is redesigned to allow such translational shearing motion when the tibia is at an approximate right angle to the femur. To prevent the recording of false data on such shearing motion, the knee design should not allow such shearing motion from a frontal load when the tibia is in line with the femur as when the lower leg is raised, since the allowable stress to the knee is different in that leg configuration.